Let’s Talk About Legion, One of Marvel’s Most Powerful Mutant

Out of all solid storylines and characters that FOX could have spun out of the X-Men franchise for an ongoing TV series, they chose Legion.

Drawing inspiration from the X-Men comics of the same name, Legion is the story of a powerful mutant and schizophrenic, David Haller. While Legion the TV show has yet to confirm Haller’s familial connection to Charles Xavier—all we know is that it’s definitely not part of the same universe as the X-Men movies—in the comics, David has always been the child of the X-Men’s iconic leader.

Xavier met David’s mother, Gabrielle Haller while working in a psychiatric facility in Israel. The two bonded over their work and eventually began a two-year affair that eventually culminated in Gabrielle becoming pregnant. However, she hid her pregnancy from Xavier until he left Israel, and when David was born, she kept the identity of his father a secret even to him.

David has struggled with mental illness since his teenage years. After being diagnosed as a schizophrenic, he was shuttled in and out of psychiatric hospitals for years. But after a strange encounter with a fellow patient, he is confronted with the possibility that the voices he hears and the visions he sees might be real.

Legion’s Got Tons of Superpowers, Each Tied to a Different Personality

The show is incredibly original, making it hard to even tell which of the characters on Legion are from the comics. Right now, the only real similarity between the comics and the new series is David Haller, the protagonist whose psychic, telekinetic powers are responsible for the show’s reality-bending visual style. Legion is actually David’s mutant identity, so named because he gets his powers in the comics by absorbing other mutants into his psyche, which manifest themselves as multiple personalities.

He is one of the most powerful mutants ever but he has his issues, control issues. Having hundreds of personalities renders Legion unpredictable and erratic. He’s particularly weak against other telepaths who can get inside his head for a battle of wills — though any telepath will be quite outnumbered.

Watch Legion For Its Unconventional Narrative

It seems to me quite different from the Superhero fatigue caused by something like the Arrow or Agents of SHIELD. I am taking about the repetitive nature of comic book shows.

Legion is kind of free to do whatever it wants with its continuity and become surprisingly unpredictable for a series based on a comic book.

When you’re offered the chance to watch something like this, something that’s set to flip the whole superhero paradigm on its head – well, why wouldn’t you give it a go?